Australia Immigration

Joblessness Prompts Immigration Curbs: With unemployment at about 10.3%, the government will limit immigration in fiscal 1994 in an effort to help the long-term unemployed during the country's economic recovery, Immigration Minister Nick Bolkus said. Almost a quarter of Australia's 17.7 million people were born overseas and another quarter are second-generation migrants.

A group of 81 refugees won a temporary reprieve Friday from being sent back to war-ravaged Kosovo when an Australian court delayed a decision on its return. A total of 259 Kosovo refugees were due to be returned this weekend, after their temporary safe-haven visas expire at midnight today. They were among the last of 4,000 ethnic Albanian refugees from the Serbian province remaining in Australia.

Australia has refused to process citizenship applications for five international weightlifters who hoped to compete in the 1992 Olympic Games. Immigration Minister Gerry Hand said that the four Bulgarians and a Romanian had not fulfilled immigration department regulations that require a minimum residency period of two years. The weightlifters--Romanian Nicu Vlad and Bulgarians Stefan Botev, Kiril Kunev, Blagoi Blagoe and Sevdilin Mironov--all arrived in Australia in March of 1991.

From the appearance of its people, Australia may once have seemed a huge chunk of Europe that had somehow made its way to the South Pacific. No longer. The island continent is becoming in its populace what it has always been in location--a part of Asia. Sections of the largest city, Sydney, are blossoming with immigrant communities from the Asian mainland.

Searchers have found the final missing man who was among 56 Chinese boat people who came ashore in northwestern Australia last month, customs officials said. The man was walking along a road when spotted by searchers in a helicopter. He was about 18 miles from the area where 35 of the boat people showed up 10 days ago. Their wooden boat came ashore on Dec. 31. Most of the others were found last weekend in Australia's harsh outback. They survived by eating snakes, small crocodiles and lizards.

The Australian state of New South Wales is trying to arrange the adoption of Romanian children to satisfy the demands of hundreds of childless couples in the country's most populous state. An immigration official will travel to Bucharest after an emotional request by a New South Wales state government minister who was moved by television pictures from Romania of orphanages packed with unwanted children.

A group of 118 refugees claiming to have fled Cambodia landed by boat Monday in western Australia, the second such group in five months to claim asylum in Australia. The refugees, aged from 5 months to 78 years, were spotted over the weekend in a 65-foot fishing boat 120 miles northwest of Broome in western Australia. They were taken to Broome for questioning Monday, immigration officials said.

China will allow dissident Fang Lizhi to leave the U.S. Embassy in Beijing where he has been since June and travel to Australia before the end of this month, a Hong Kong magazine said Tuesday. Both the American and Australian consulates in Hong Kong declined to comment on the report. The magazine Pai Shing, without revealing its sources, said a preliminary understanding was reached during a visit to Beijing in December by U.S. National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft.

Dennis Bramnick is about to uphold the family tradition of heading West in search of a better life. His grandparents came to the United States from Russia. His father migrated to Los Angeles from the East Coast, with stops in Michigan and Arizona. In early May, Bramnick and his wife Cathy plan to fly off to Australia, start a new life and, they hope, strike it rich.

Joblessness Prompts Immigration Curbs: With unemployment at about 10.3%, the government will limit immigration in fiscal 1994 in an effort to help the long-term unemployed during the country's economic recovery, Immigration Minister Nick Bolkus said. Almost a quarter of Australia's 17.7 million people were born overseas and another quarter are second-generation migrants.

Australia has refused to process citizenship applications for five international weightlifters who hoped to compete in the 1992 Olympic Games. Immigration Minister Gerry Hand said that the four Bulgarians and a Romanian had not fulfilled immigration department regulations that require a minimum residency period of two years. The weightlifters--Romanian Nicu Vlad and Bulgarians Stefan Botev, Kiril Kunev, Blagoi Blagoe and Sevdilin Mironov--all arrived in Australia in March of 1991.

Searchers have found the final missing man who was among 56 Chinese boat people who came ashore in northwestern Australia last month, customs officials said. The man was walking along a road when spotted by searchers in a helicopter. He was about 18 miles from the area where 35 of the boat people showed up 10 days ago. Their wooden boat came ashore on Dec. 31. Most of the others were found last weekend in Australia's harsh outback. They survived by eating snakes, small crocodiles and lizards.

A group of 118 refugees claiming to have fled Cambodia landed by boat Monday in western Australia, the second such group in five months to claim asylum in Australia. The refugees, aged from 5 months to 78 years, were spotted over the weekend in a 65-foot fishing boat 120 miles northwest of Broome in western Australia. They were taken to Broome for questioning Monday, immigration officials said.

The Australian state of New South Wales is trying to arrange the adoption of Romanian children to satisfy the demands of hundreds of childless couples in the country's most populous state. An immigration official will travel to Bucharest after an emotional request by a New South Wales state government minister who was moved by television pictures from Romania of orphanages packed with unwanted children.

China will allow dissident Fang Lizhi to leave the U.S. Embassy in Beijing where he has been since June and travel to Australia before the end of this month, a Hong Kong magazine said Tuesday. Both the American and Australian consulates in Hong Kong declined to comment on the report. The magazine Pai Shing, without revealing its sources, said a preliminary understanding was reached during a visit to Beijing in December by U.S. National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft.

Hiroyuki Sato, a computer systems engineer from Beppu, Japan, decided to honeymoon in Australia because he likes animals and wanted to see kangaroos and koalas. He also thought the country was safe and its food and water sanitary--and he had heard that Australians welcome foreign visitors. Indeed they do--and among them, Japanese rate among the most favored. Last year, as 2.25 million foreigners visited the country, tourist revenue reached $5.2 billion, to become Australia's No.

This country is introducing tough new immigration laws today that will raise educational and professional requirements and deal harshly with people who overstay their visas. The laws "substantially tightens our management of the immigration program," Immigration Minister Robert Ray said Monday. The rate of emigration to Australia has been rising steadily over the last few years. The number in 1989-90 will be limited to 140,000, the same as in the previous year.

This country is introducing tough new immigration laws today that will raise educational and professional requirements and deal harshly with people who overstay their visas. The laws "substantially tightens our management of the immigration program," Immigration Minister Robert Ray said Monday. The rate of emigration to Australia has been rising steadily over the last few years. The number in 1989-90 will be limited to 140,000, the same as in the previous year.

Hiroyuki Sato, a computer systems engineer from Beppu, Japan, decided to honeymoon in Australia because he likes animals and wanted to see kangaroos and koalas. He also thought the country was safe and its food and water sanitary--and he had heard that Australians welcome foreign visitors. Indeed they do--and among them, Japanese rate among the most favored. Last year, as 2.25 million foreigners visited the country, tourist revenue reached $5.2 billion, to become Australia's No.